The Alpha Kings And Their Stripper Mate

Chapter 279: Chapter 279: Three Months Later

Eve’s POV

Three months.

It had been three months since the Conclave gavel came down and Vassin’s voice filled the hall and everything Malachai had built for twenty years started coming apart at the seams.

Three months of waking up in the same bed every morning and not having anywhere to be except here. Three months of the pack settling around her like it had always known she belonged in it. Three months of Damian’s coffee already made when she came downstairs and Damon stealing from her plate and Silas appearing in doorways without knocking because he never needed to.

Three months of something that felt dangerously close to ordinary.

She should have been grateful for it.

She was grateful for it.

But something was wrong.

It had started small.

Dreams that weren’t quite dreams. More like feelings that followed her out of sleep.....a pull, low and insistent, like a thread tied somewhere behind her sternum being tugged from a distance. She would wake up and lie still and try to locate it and it would fade before she could.

She hadn’t told anyone.

Not because she was hiding it. Just because she didn’t have words for it yet and she had learned over the past few months that some things needed to become clear before they could be spoken.

But it was getting harder to ignore.

This morning she had stood at the bathroom mirror for ten minutes just staring at herself. Trying to feel where the pull was coming from. Trying to understand what it wanted.

She hadn’t figured it out.

She had gone downstairs and eaten breakfast and smiled at the right moments and nobody had noticed.

Maya noticed.

Of course she did.

She was sitting across from Eve at the kitchen table at half past nine when everyone else had already scattered and she looked at Eve over her coffee cup and said, "What’s going on with you."

"Nothing," Eve said.

"Eve."

"I’m fine."

"You’ve said approximately forty seven words today and it’s not even ten o’clock." Maya set her cup down. "That’s not fine. That’s you processing something you haven’t decided to say out loud yet."

Eve looked at her.

"I’ve been having dreams," she said.

"What kind."

"Not nightmares. Just...." She paused. "A feeling. Like something pulling at me. Like I’m supposed to be somewhere and I’m not there yet."

Maya was quiet for a moment. "How long."

"Three weeks."

"Three weeks and you’re only telling me now."

"I didn’t know how to describe it," Eve said. "I still don’t really."

Maya looked at her steadily. "Does it feel bad."

Eve thought about it honestly.

"No," she said. "That’s the strange part. It doesn’t feel bad. It just feels..." She stopped. "Unfinished."

Maya picked up her coffee again.

"Have you told Damian," she said.

"No."

"Silas."

"No."

"Damon would probably...."

"No," Eve said.

Maya raised an eyebrow.

"I wanted to understand it first," Eve said. "Before I made it everyone’s problem."

"Eve." Maya’s voice was flat. "You have three mates. Their entire purpose is to make your problems their problems. That’s literally the deal."

Eve almost smiled.

"I know," she said.

"So tell them."

"I will."

"Today."

"Maya."

"Today, Eve."

***

She told Damian first.

Found him in the study at noon, correspondence spread across the desk, the specific focused stillness of him when he was working through something that needed attention.

He looked up when she came in.

Read her face immediately.

"Sit down," he said.

She sat down.

Told him about the dreams. The pull. The three weeks of waking up and lying still and trying to locate something she couldn’t name. She told him all of it plainly without dressing it up.

He listened without interrupting.

When she finished he was quiet for a moment.

"How strong is it," he said.

"Getting stronger," she said. "Slowly. But yes."

He looked at the desk.

"Does it feel like the bond," he said.

"No," she said. "Different from the bond. Older somehow." She paused. "Like it’s coming from somewhere deeper than that."

Damian was quiet again.

Then he said, "We should talk to Silas."

"Why Silas specifically."

Damian looked at her.

"Because he came to me two weeks ago," he said. "And told me he’d been feeling something at the edge of the territory." He paused. "Something he couldn’t identify. Something patient."

Eve stared at him. ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm

"Two weeks ago," she said.

"Yes." freewēbnoveℓ.com

"And you didn’t tell me."

"He asked me to wait," Damian said. "He was still trying to understand it, he wanted to have more information about it before we tell everyone."

Eve sat back in her chair.

Two weeks. Silas had been carrying this for two weeks and she had been carrying her version of it for three and neither of them had said anything and meanwhile whatever it was had apparently been getting closer.

"Get him," she said.

Silas came in and looked at Eve and immediately knew she knew.

He sat down across from her without being asked.

"How long," she said.

"Six weeks," he said.

"Six weeks Silas."

"I know."

"That’s..."

"I know," he said. "I wanted to be certain before I said anything. I didn’t want to worry everyone over something I couldn’t confirm."

"Can you confirm it now," she said.

He looked at the desk.

"It’s getting closer," he said. "Whatever it is. It moves slowly but it moves consistently. Every week it’s a little nearer than the week before." He looked at her. "And it started moving the night of the Conclave finding."

The study was quiet.

Damian looked at Silas.

Silas looked at Eve.

"It felt the bloodline activate," Eve said slowly. "When the finding came through. When the ascension process was formally initiated." She felt the pull in her chest as she said it....stronger than usual, responding to something. "It’s been moving toward me ever since."

Neither of them argued with that.

Because it fit.

It fit exactly.

"We need Vessa," Damian said.

Eve was already reaching for her phone.

Vessa answered on the second ring.

Eve told her what she’d told Damian. What Silas had been tracking. The timeline. The direction.

There was silence on the other end of the line.

Long enough that Eve said, "Vessa."

"I’m here," Vessa said.

Her voice was different.

Careful in a way it hadn’t been in months.

"You know what it is," Eve said.

Another silence.

"I was afraid of this," Vessa said.